


Heavy Price

by GemNika



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, CoLu Week 2017, Domestic Violence, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, F/M, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Implied/Referenced Torture, No Romance, Post-Tartaros Arc (Fairy Tail)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 07:37:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11801457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemNika/pseuds/GemNika
Summary: CoLu Week 2017, Day 1: Blossoms. Everyone thought he was the perfect man, but Lucy knew he wasn't. Her bruised rib definitely knew. What happens when she runs into a man who can hear her soul screaming for freedom?





	Heavy Price

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline: Post-Tartaros, without the Alvarez Arc.  
> This story is loosely (barely) related to the original prompt, and it was used as a jumping off point to write the story.

 

Lucy felt the bones in her hand shift as Darren's grip tightened, and she fought back a grimace. They were still in public, but he didn't care about that. So many people passed by as they made their way to the hotel, but no one commented on the vice grip he had on her. She just wished there was someone she could turn to for help. The only problem was that her team loved Darren. They thought he could do no wrong, but she knew firsthand that it just wasn't the case.

Her bruised rib definitely knew.

And how pathetic was she for staying with a man who beat her? Lucy was constantly advocating to the women they helped on jobs that they shouldn't let any man control them. But there she was, with her boyfriend of seven months, following him like a dog. She cowered from him when they were alone. When others were around, he was the perfect gentleman, and no one suspected anything else was the case. She ached for those times when they were with others, when he was gentle with her and so painfully sweet.

Erza, especially, was smitten with Darren being in Lucy's life. So much that Lucy hadn't had the heart to tell her about what he was doing. She'd tried telling Mira, but at just the mention of him, the barmaid had wilted to the ground with hearts in her eyes.

"Keep moving," Darren said. His voice was cool, controlled. He wouldn't yell where people could hear him.

If she had her keys, this would have been easier. But he knew that she relied on them to summon her spirits, and he'd taken her out and away from Magnolia under the guise of a vacation. He'd forced her to leave her keys at home. He'd told everyone it was a romantic vacation. It was anything but romantic.

They'd been just outside of Akane for a week, and it was the first time he'd let her out of the hotel room. The first time he'd allowed her to leave the bed she'd been tied to.

The fact that he'd put a bedpan under her still unnerved her. The only thing that was worse than using it, was watching him empty it.

They wove through the crowded marketplace, and Lucy inhaled the decadent scent of frying fish from a stall. If Natsu had been with her, she would have already been dragged to that stall by him and Happy. She missed those days.

Darren pulled her past the fish stall when she hesitated slightly. She was hungry, damnit. Darren was only letting her eat fruit, and it wasn't nearly enough to sustain her throughout the day.

She was just thankful that he wasn't trying to sleep with her. According to her boyfriend, she was being punished for something, so she wasn't "allowed to enjoy what he could do between the sheets." He didn't realize that Lucy was over the moon about not having to fuck him.

Someone bumped into her as Darren yanked her forward, and Lucy turned her head to apologize. She caught the barest sight of deeply tanned skin, a pointed ear, and a single indigo eye peering back at her over his shoulder. She hadn't seen him since that Infinity Clock business several years prior, but Lucy really could never forget what Cobra looked like.

Except he was supposed to be in prison. Tartaros was long gone, the Council had been rebuilt twice more since then, and they'd been told that all the criminals who'd escaped and needed to be apprehended… well, that there was nothing to worry about.

Their eyes stayed locked when Darren pulled on her hand again, and Lucy took another step away while dread coiled in her gut. She didn't want to go back to the hotel with him. She didn't want to be tied up again and humiliated. The last thing she wanted was to keep hiding the pain he put her through. She didn't call out to Cobra, even when he turned and he walked away from her. She wanted to, though. God, did she want to have the strength to ask for help. Even from someone who'd tried to kill her before. Anything was better than what was waiting for her in the hotel.

"Don't make me tell you again, Lucy," Darren hissed. "We need to go."

"Alright," she huffed. She gasped when the bones in her hand shifted again.

"What was that?"

"I-I mean yes, sir," she whimpered. He didn't pull again, and instead Lucy followed him. It was so much easier to keep her head down and out of trouble. Maybe if she was patient enough, she could slip out when he wasn't paying attention. Maybe.

* * *

For the first time in a week, Lucy was allowed to eat a real meal. It wasn't much by a long shot. Just a sandwich and a handful of fries, but she was in heaven.

"You've been very good lately," Darren said, smiling over his glass of wine. Lucy lifted her gaze from her plastic cup of tap water and gave him a small smile. All she had to do was keep him happy until he let his guard down, and then she could make a break for it.

It wouldn't be too hard to hop on a train to Magnolia. Or even to some other town so she could get to the Rune Knights. There were probably Rune Knights in this town as well, but it was too close. Darren would catch her if she tried to find the outpost there. He needed to be reported. She'd decided in the time since seeing Cobra that she had to do something about this. She couldn't stay with Darren. She couldn't try to rely on someone else to fix this for her. She had to be brave and get out, just like she'd told so many women before.

After their meal, he surprised her again by taking the dishes to their small kitchenette to clean them himself. Lucy went to the bathroom and relieved herself, then peeked at the towels on the floor from his shower earlier that day. There was still a clean towel, but she bit her lip and tossed it to the floor, then laid his wet towels over it.

This was her chance.

She left the bathroom and found him standing right outside it, smiling down at her. She forced herself to smile back. "I was going to take a shower, but I guess housekeeping hasn't been by yet. We're out of towels."

"Just go down to the front desk," he said. "They'll give you some, I bet."

She was surprised when Darren's arms tenderly wound about her waist, but let herself be pulled into his chest. That was even easier than she'd anticipated. She'd been positive that he would have told her to call the front desk and ask for towels. But he was going to let her go down there? By herself?

He kissed the top of her head and Lucy squeaked when his fingertips gently swatted her butt. She pulled back to look up at him, and found herself being directed to the door of their room. And then it closed behind her once she was in the hallway.

She stood there for several seconds, trying to process what had just happened. She couldn't take too long though. He would start wondering where she was, why she was taking so long. If he went down to check at the desk, only to find that she'd never gone there, then Lucy knew she needed to have as much distance between them as possible.

Her footsteps were light and quick down the hall when she finally started to move. There was no point in going to the desk. She didn't want to waste time getting down to the lobby and going out the front door when there was a fire escape at the end of the hall. The window was already open. This was her lucky day, apparently.

A hopeful smile lifted her lips as she started climbing out the window. Freedom. Finally!

Thin arms locked around her waist and throat, and ripped her away from the window. Lucy struggled, even when Darren pushed her forward and slammed her forehead into the wooden frame.

"No towels, huh?" Darren spat. "I know there's a clean one left."

She felt herself being pulled away from the exit, and even though her head was throbbing she fought back. Gone was the time for her to be complacent.

"I guess you didn't notice the Do Not Disturb sign I put up when we left," he growled into her ear. His arm tightened around her throat and dark spots danced in her vision. "And I counted them. You failed my test, Lucy. You know what that means, right?"

She was terrified of what would happen if she just let Darren continue, and when her fist caught him in the jaw, Lucy took the opportunity and lunged for the window once again.

She scrambled out onto the fire escape and down the ladder, ignoring the loud clatter of metal under her bare feet. Cool pavement caressed her toes, and Lucy glanced up to see that Darren hadn't followed her. Maybe she'd hit him hard enough to knock him loopy for a bit. Maybe she'd knocked him out entirely and hadn't realized it.

That didn't matter. Because she was free and there wasn't a chance in hell that she would ever go back.

Lucy turned and darted down the alley, then around the corner and away from the hotel. She'd barely made it half a block when someone appeared out of another alley. There was no time to stop herself from slamming into them. Her eyes slammed shut as she tumbled backward, a soft grunt leaving her when she hit the ground.

There was only silence after that.

' _Please don't be him… Please. Anyone but him.'_

"Lucky Lucy, huh?" said a low voice from above her. Lucy tensed when he chuckled. "I'm definitely not  _him_."

Her eyes snapped open and drifted higher to find Cobra staring down at her with his arms crossed over his chest. "Y-You…" She was pretty sure her shoulders sagging and a tearful grin pulling at her lips wasn't supposed to be her reaction to seeing the Poison Dragon Slayer. He'd tried to kill her a couple times already. Granted that was far in the past, but still…

"Lucy!" She went rigid at the sound of Darren's voice coming down the street. Shit. She'd spent so much time trying to get down the building, he'd probably had enough time to get himself together to come after her. This wasn't good. "Lucy, there you are. I was so worried about you."

Like hell was he worried about her. More than likely, he'd drag her back to the room and tie her up again. She looked down at her wrists. It had taken a lot of makeup to cover the red marks that she was sure were going to be bruises in the next couple days.

Darren jogged closer. "Who's your friend?"

"N-No one," Lucy said, closing her eyes. She didn't see how Cobra watched her hand slip over her wrist protectively, or how he set his attention on the brunette coming closer to where she sat.

"Aw, don't be like that," Cobra said, drawing Lucy's wide-eyed attention to the devious smirk on his face. "We go way back."

"What are you doing?" she whispered.

Cobra looked at Darren as he stopped just behind her. "I'm guessing someone ran out," he said. "Lucy's always been forgetful like that. No shoes…"

Darren laughed and bent in half to catch his breath. Lucy knew he didn't need to catch his breath though. And when she glanced his way, she found him glaring at her from beneath his bangs. It was a look that screamed,  _You're in big trouble_.

"She really is," Darren said, finally righting himself and plastering a grin on his face. He put out a hand to shake. "Darren, Lucy's boyfriend."

Cobra didn't move to touch him, instead choosing to stare right into his forest green eyes. "Cobra, Lucy's ex-boyfriend."

She could feel the temperature dropping, almost as though Gray was there. Except Darren's magic was nothing like that. He just did cute little illusions. Nothing too powerful. She slowly stood and brushed the dirt off the back of her skirt. Why was Cobra lying? She hadn't seen Cobra since the Infinity Clock. And they'd certainly never dated. Was he just trying to make things worse for her? Knowing his mean streak, maybe he was.

"I hope you can keep her in line," Cobra said, looking over Lucy's head as though she wasn't even there. "I didn't have time for her shit."

"Oh, I manage," Darren chuckled. His hand slipped into hers and he pulled her into his side. With one arm behind her back, Lucy bit back any outward reaction when he started twisting her wrist. "It took a little while though."

"How long?"

"About five months."

Lucy frowned. "We've been together seven mon-" Her words cut off on a whimper when he twisted her arm harder than before. "S-Sorry, sir."

"Nice," Cobra said. His head tilted to one side in thought while Lucy squirmed before he looked back at Darren. "Care to give me some pointers?"

"Sure thing," Darren said with a dark grin down at Lucy. "Come with us. I'll show you."

She trembled when he turned her back toward the hotel. She was sure everyone in town could hear her soul screaming when Cobra fell in step on her other side. She'd forgotten that the one who could hear just that, was walking beside her.

* * *

"Take a seat, Lucy." She stood beside the closed door, rubbing at the handprint on her arm with her head lowered. "Be a good hostess, just like I taught you."

Millipedes wriggling under her flesh would have been better than the feeling she had at those words. She didn't like thinking about the times Darren had invited his friends over to his apartment and made her entertain them. Still, she walked across the carpet and stared at her dirty feet until she came to a stop right in front of Cobra. She hesitated.

"Well sit down already," Cobra spat. He grabbed just above where Darren had been twisting earlier and yanked her down sideways onto his lap. She didn't want to be there. She didn't want to breathe in the heady scent of woods and some dark spice drifting from beneath the fur lining of his jacket. She didn't want his hand to slide across her bare lower back and settle on her hip. "She still needs some work."

Darren sat across from them at the small table, resting his head on one fist. "I haven't done this with her much," he said. "I prefer keeping her to myself most times."

"I understand. Thanks for the opportunity, though."

"Well, I assume you already know what she's like." Darren smirked and let his eyes rake over her.  _'Quite the temptress. She was so ready to take it off after our third date.'_

"She made me wait until the third date," Cobra said. His hand slid up to her waist and his thumb barely brushed the underside of her breast. He chuckled when Lucy shied away from his hand, further into his embrace. "Definitely worth it."

"We should have some drinks though," Darren said. "I feel like I know you from somewhere."

"Maybe you do," Cobra shrugged. He leaned closer to her and lightly nipped at her shoulder. "Drinks sound good."

Lucy watched Darren walk out of the room, closing her eyes to keep from vomiting when Cobra's lips brushed against her pounding pulse. Darren stopped, and she could  _feel_  him watching them.

"Don't have too much fun," Darren said. To anyone else, it may have sounded like he was joking. Lucy knew the truth though. He'd threatened her enough times before for her to pick it up. That small change in his voice at the end of the sentence. He left the room, and her heart picked up in speed when Cobra inhaled against her ear.

"Go to the bathroom," Cobra whispered. "Take a shower. A long one." Before she could ask why, he continued. "Don't come out until I knock."

She really did want to know what the hell was going on though. Why he was saying that to her in the first place. His teeth scraped against her earring, and she forced herself to stay still instead of cringing away from his touch. By that point, her natural reaction to someone touching her was to try and escape. It was exhausting trying to keep it hidden from everyone though.

"He wants to watch me fuck you," Cobra whispered. "Then he'll kill you. You picked a fucking winner. Be glad I showed up..."

"Cobra…"

"Don't say a word," he rasped, planting gentle kisses down her throat to her collar bone. "Not a peep, understand?"

Of course she understood that.

"Good. Swear you won't come out until I knock. Two fast, break, two slow. Understand?"

What the hell was he planning on doing though? Why did she need to take a shower? Why was he going to knock, and why couldn't she come out before then?

"Trust me," he said softly, drawing back a little when she looked right into his eye. His nose brushed against hers and his free hand lifted to push into her hair. "I can make this easier for you, though. Kiss me once, and you won't mind a thing."

Kiss him? Hell no, she wasn't going to kiss him. She didn't even know him. Cobra's thumb brushed over the shell of her ear then down to her cheek, and she found herself trembling. How was he going to-

"Choose now. Just trust me." He moved closer, his lips barely grazing hers. Her bones quaked when his teeth lightly pricked her lower lip. Could she trust him? She honestly didn't know, but she could hear Darren rinsing out glasses in the little kitchen they had. He would be getting another bottle of wine soon and then her chance would be gone.

Was Cobra really going to help her?

"I'll set you free." His words were hardly more than a breath, but when she inhaled on a sharp gasp, her brows furrowed at the sickly sweet taste of his breath she'd pulled in. Was he going to poison her? Put her out of her misery, maybe? That seemed like a Cobra thing to do.

She didn't even need to tell him yes. He seemed to know that she was a coward and wanted the easy way out. He'd said she wouldn't mind it when he helped her. Whatever that meant. But between one moment and the next his lips were on hers and his tongue had speared into her mouth. She didn't really try to kiss him back though. She just wasn't interested in a whole lot of anything concerning a man touching her.

Darren came back into the main room and before she could try to pull away, Cobra grabbed her hair at the roots and forcefully canted her head to one side to deepen the kiss. She whimpered and tried to push him away, grabbed at the collar of his shirt. And then she tasted it. The poison. Darren was watching her kiss another man, and he was going to force her to fuck Cobra before killing her. Was this making him angrier? She really didn't care. Not when she finally forced herself to melt into the kiss, to quite literally suck the poison from Cobra's tongue. With each passing second, she drifted further away from the hotel. Her body may have been in that room, on Cobra's lap, but her hands felt heavy and numb. It slowly spread up the length of her arms, from her toes to her hips and higher still until there was nothing left of her but an odd buzzing sensation centered between her eyes.

"I'm starting to think you should have taken a little more time with her before," Darren said, slamming the glasses down on the little table.

Cobra groaned while her hands sifted through his hair, and finally pulled away from her lips. Lucy's head dropped to his throat and she unknowingly pressed soft kisses up to his jaw while he looked at Darren. "Maybe I should've," he said with a challenging smirk. After a moment, he pulled her back and looked into her dull, heavy-lidded honey eyes. "Go get cleaned up."

She nodded and slowly stood, then wandered off toward the bathroom in a haze. She hadn't realized her cheeks were flaming until Cobra was no longer holding onto her, but Lucy completely ignored Darren while walking out of the room. She couldn't turn on the shower right away though. She pressed herself flush against the door and listened to what was going on now that she was gone.

" _... told her… shower…"_  she could hear Cobra saying.

Darren didn't come to the bathroom, and he didn't raise his voice. All that was left for her to do was turn on the faucet and clean herself off. Slowly, apparently. According to Cobra, she needed to take her sweet time in the bathroom. She could do that. It worried her a little that whatever poison Cobra had given her seemed to be wearing off when she looked down at her feet. Utterly filthy. She set the shower to scalding and removed her clothes. She avoided looking at her reflection while passing the mirror.

Their voices barely made it past the door with the shower running, but that didn't matter. Not when she was alone in the bathroom, away from the men out there. She bent down to grab the clean towel she'd hidden under Darren's wet ones from earlier, then hung it on the rack inside the shower.

As soon as her foot touched the warmed tile, she heard a loud thud through the wall. Harsh curses were quickly followed by a bloodcurdling scream.

Lucy stepped under the shower's spray and wet her hair. She took her time lathering shampoo, rinsing, repeating.

" _Please, no! Stop this!"_

She added conditioner. Was that Darren?

" _Lucy, help me! Help! Oh god, what are you doing to me?!"_

The first of her tears fell while pouring body wash onto a cloth, but the odd numbness came back and she was blissfully unaware that she was crying at all. She scrubbed her chest.

" _No! Who the hell are you?! Oh god, no!"_

Lucy scrubbed her breasts and stomach and arms. Slow circles, making sure to really exfoliate. It had been a while since she'd taken the time to do that.

" _I didn't mean it, I swear! I love her! I really do love her!"_

She put down the cloth to shave under her arms. Just before the razor touched her skin, a loud bang of something heavy against the bathroom door made her jump. With half-lidded eyes, she peeked out of the shower and stared listlessly at the closed door.

" _Lucy, I'm so sorry! I never should have hurt you! Make him stop!"_

Part of her knew that she should go out there and tell Cobra to stop. She should be reporting Darren to the Rune Knights for abusing her. The marks on her wrists from that day alone were telling enough. She had pictures back at home, kept with Virgo at the spirit's insistence, of every bruise and cut he'd left on her in the past five months.

 _"She's not answering you,"_  Cobra laughed.  _"Guess she doesn't want me to stop."_

Five months…

" _She'll answer! Tell him to stop! NO! No, she'll answer! Don't do it!"_

Darren had said five months when talking to Cobra. When he'd been talking about keeping her in line. For five months, that's what he'd seen it as. Conditioning her to be just what he wanted. Complacent. Scared. Unwilling to try and get away from him.

" _Lucy, you bitch! Answer me! This psycho has a fucking knife to my throat! Are you really going to stay in there and-"_

That was all she was to Darren. A piece of meat.

Well, fuck him.

Lucy brought her head back into the shower and lifted the razor to her flesh. She slowly started to shave.

" _Goddamnit, you stupid fucking whore! He's… He's taking the knife away and… No, don't put it there. Please! Lucy! Lucy, tell him to stop!"_

" _Up the ass, it goes, motherfucker."_

Another bloodcurdling scream ricocheted through the door and into the bathroom.

" _God, please… N-No, I don't… Don't twist it! Oh fuck! Lucy, help me!"_

"Serves you right," she sighed, picking up the cloth again.

Shaving between her legs was next. Then shaving her legs. She found it easier than it probably should have been to drown out Darren's screams in the next room. Especially when Cobra dragged him away from the bathroom door. He was still screaming when she washed the conditioner out and turned off the water. She peeked out and saw that the door was still closed, still barring her from the horrors that were taking place just on the other side.

" _Y-Yes sir! I'll be a good boy. Please don't cut more off… Please, sir! No! Not that! Not my di-"_

She turned around and set the plug in the drain, then filled the bath while Darren screamed even louder than before. She really didn't even want to know what was happening to him. Just knowing that Cobra was handling it, oddly enough, made her not care how it was done. She turned off the faucet and settled herself into the bath, then dipped her head beneath the water.

She stayed there for as long as her breath would allow. By the time she surfaced, Darren was quiet. Everything was quiet.

But Cobra had told her not to open the door until he knocked. Two short knocks and a pause, then two more. That was what she had to wait for.

* * *

She woke up to the sound of the door splintering and giving way. Lucy bolted upright in the bath, shivering when she felt how cold the water had gotten. It wasn't until two Rune Knights stormed into the bathroom that she realized she was completely naked, and they were getting an eyeful of her bare chest. Except her brain just wasn't functioning all that quickly. Sleep had a tendency to do that to her.

"She's alive!" one Knight called back as he and his partner turned their backs to her. "And in the bath."

Lucy looked down at her chest, and when her brain finally caught up, she squeaked and pulled the plug in the drain. She stood and wrapped her towel around herself, then stepped out of the tub. "What are you doing here?" she asked slowly. Why did she feel so strange? Why was her head so clouded? They didn't turn to look back at her. Lucy waited though, because she really wasn't sure what the hell she was supposed to do with Rune Knights just… standing there.

"Miss Heartfilia?"

"Yeah…?"

"We, um…" He paused when another Knight rushed out of the hotel room and vomited in the hallway.

"It's a bloodbath," the other whispered.

"Bloodbath?" Lucy asked, her eyes widening when they turned toward her. "What is?"

"Miss Heartfilia, we need to know your whereabouts for the past three hours," the first Knight said.

"We received a complaint," said the second. "Screams coming from this room. At first we thought it was just… You know…"

"Loud sex," Lucy supplied absently. Did they say a bloodbath? Why would there be a bloodbath?

"Yes," the first said. "But more calls came in, and when we knocked, there was no answer. You see…"

"Where's Darren?" Lucy asked. "I fell asleep in the tub. Where is he?"

The Knights shared a look between them that spoke louder than anything they could have said. Finally the second Knight looked at her again. "You… didn't hear anything?"

"I'm a heavy sleeper," she said. "Where's my boyfriend?" They didn't answer her, but Lucy had a feeling she was going to be ashamed of being happy over the truth. It was all pretty hazy for her before she took a bath. The fact that she'd taken a bath in the first place was odd, since Darren never let her take them anymore. Lucy stumbled through the small bathroom and pushed the Knights out of the way. She ignored their frantic voices telling her not to look at the bed. She needed to see it for herself. No matter how gruesome, Lucy needed to know. What had happened to Darren?

She paused in the mouth of the hallway, staring at the blood-smeared walls, the overturned table Darren ate his dinner at. She took in every detail while scanning the room. Vomit in the corner. Hand prints swiping over the walls and a large crimson pool on the floor around the bed. There were splashes of partially digested food here and there. Was that actual feces on the broken bedpost on the floor? If so, why the hell was there blood on it as well?

Darren was on the bed though. Well, the parts of him that were left. He'd been disemboweled and dismembered. She wasn't sure which parts were which as she stared at the mound of flesh and viscera and bone in the middle of the bed. His intestines were set up like a macabre string of Christmas lights over the headboard, surrounding a message written in blood with the torn flesh of his face, smiling just beneath it.

_Abusive pricks have to face the music._

A fucking pun. If it wasn't so disgusting, Lucy was sure she would have laughed over the ludicrous timing for such a bad joke.

Instead, she let her body take over as she inhaled the putrid stench in the air. A hand flew to her mouth and she whirled in place, then dashed back into the bathroom. She only made it to the sink before she threw up the entirety of a dinner she didn't remember eating.

* * *

 

After days of questioning and filling out reports - ranging from what had happened in the hotel room to explaining why there were bruises on her arms and ribs, to explaining that she hadn't killed her boyfriend because he beat her and admitting that he did, in fact, beat her often - and talking to people in the guild who wanted to console her over Darren's death, Lucy was finally alone in her apartment. She hadn't even had time to unpack her bag from the trip.

Her spirits were both elated by the news that Darren wouldn't be around any longer, and appalled when they found out what had happened. There was no point in lying to them about it. Out of all her spirits, the one she'd least expected to be understanding of her choice was Capricorn. Except all he'd done was hug her tightly and refuse to let her go, whispering again and again that he was only glad she was safe.

Because when she'd been away from the Rune Knights, a quick flash of a memory had come back to her, spiralling larger and larger until she could at least recall kissing Cobra and him saying that he'd set her free.

She let out a quiet sigh while picking her bag up from the corner and setting it on her bed. She was halfway through pulling things out and sorting her dirty clothes and toiletries when she found something that shouldn't have been there. An odd piece of paper sat crumpled between two of her shirts, and she carefully plucked it from the bag. Something brownish-red was smeared across parts of it, but she unfolded the paper anyway. As she read the words written on the page, Lucy slowly sat down on the bed, lost to the world around her.

_Lucky Duck Heartfilia,_

_I know you'll come up with something, and that I don't have to worry about Knights breathing down my neck. Probably because you won't remember that I did this until after you've talked to them. Thanks for that. Consider this my official apology for trying to kill you. Congratulations! you're on the short list of people I've apologized to._ _Don't beat yourself up over this, and don't feel guilty about your choice. The blood is on my hands. Literally. I could have just as easily knocked him out, and gotten you out of there. But I felt like killing someone. Jellal doesn't let me kill people, because he's an uptight fucking twat._ _Also, a piece of advice… If a man makes you uncomfortable on the first date, don't brush it off and go for a second. Besides, this shitbox had no sense of humor. I checked, but he didn't have a stick up his ass. There's a knife there now, though. Serrated for His Pleasure._

_Ah, I crack me up._

_Wait… Okay, I'm back. He woke up. I can't even remember the last time I sodomized some prick with anything larger than a knife. Good times, seriously. I pity that bedpost though._ _I'm not finished with him yet, but this is gonna get messy. I just wanted you to know what I already wrote. About the apology thing. And the advice thing._ _Oh, and one more thing. Don't be like me and keep everyone at arm's length. That's not who you are. Hug it out and get all those kumba-ya-ya's out and shit. Dance in fucking Fairy dust or whatever the hell it is you bubblegum freaks do in that happy-happy, snuggle-fucking guild of yours. He'll be gone forever, so don't let him hold you back, alright?_

_All the best. - Cobra_

She couldn't stop staring at the paper in her hands. She couldn't stop reading over the words again and again from the Poison Dragon Slayer. She didn't notice the bloody fingerprints on the edges of the page any longer. Lucy had a feeling she should have been freaked out that the man who'd saved her from just being another statistic had also killed Darren. That he was expecting her to make a believable alibi so he wouldn't get caught.

That he'd sodomized her now-deceased ex with a knife, and then a bedpost larger than her own fist. That was just disgusting.

There was a lot that should have most likely made her run back to the Rune Knights, screaming and hollering that she had hard evidence on the one responsible for Darren's death. But she was just too busy staring at his beautiful penmanship. Who would have thought Cobra would write so elegantly? Those were some of the most beautifully written  _fucks_ and  _shits_  she'd ever seen.

Besides, he'd saved her life. This was his apology for the past they shared. For his attempt at trying to kill her.

Cobra, the Poison Dragon Slayer, had saved her life.

She couldn't turn him in.

* * *

Miles away from Magnolia, a group of seven mages clad in blue cloaks walked through a shaded forest. Cobra opened his eye and smiled down at the ground, a secretive little turn to his lips, when he heard her.

' _I wonder if I'll ever see him again…'_

She was an odd fucking duck - that was for sure - but it was the first time he could remember someone wanting to thank him for slaughtering a person.

He guessed he could get used to that.

She was shit out of luck though. No way in hell was he going to get sucked into the crazy bullshit that was her Fairy Tail life. Maybe in some alternate universe, he could go and meet up with her and maybe something would happen between them. But this was the real world, and he knew shit like that was never meant to be.

So, Cobra kept walking with Crime Sorciere, each step taking him further from the blonde Celestial mage who was already hoping he could hear her thoughts from wherever he was.

" _Thank you, Cobra."_  He could hear her crying while she burned the letter he'd written her, to get rid of any evidence. Smart fucking cookie, too. But her tears were happy ones.  _"Thank you."_

_**.The End.** _


End file.
